How Adonai Mitchell's role is changing in the Colts receiver room

INDIANAPOLIS -- Adonai Mitchell only saw seven snaps in Sunday's win over the Bears, but one of them had him running wide open with a chance at an explosive gain.

The Colts second-round rookie burst out of his slot alignment on a deep post. After Trey Sermon and Quenton Nelson tag-teamed a blitzing T.J. Edwards to give Anthony Richardson time, the quarterback launched a ball that hung in the air just a little too long.

Mitchell pulled up to wait on it, but a crashing Bears safety beat his hands to the football. Incomplete.

"It's just a matter of me getting the ball to him," Richardson said. "So, they're doing their part. I’ve just got to do my part."

It goes down as another missed opportunity to begin these first three games.

"At the end of the day, I've got to control what I can control," Mitchell said. "There's certain things I can't control and a lot that I can."

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This is the growth mindset Mitchell is learning to live in. His rookie season has had a bumpy start with just two catches for 32 yards. And for now, his role has to scale back.

Josh Downs has returned to his slot role, Alec Pierce is leading the NFL with 25 yards per completion in the "X" spot, Michael Pittman Jr. is the invested No. 1 receiver at the "Z" position and the Colts want to run the ball with Richardson and Jonathan Taylor as much as they do, meaning Ashton Dulin will earn snaps as a blocker.

This is how a second-round wide receiver goes from 62 combined plays the first two weeks without Downs to just seven in Indianapolis' 21-16 win over Chicago.

"AD will be all right," wide receivers coach Reggie Wayne said. "He's a rookie. Rookies have to get in the back of the line."

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Outside of Pierce, Richardson's connections with his receivers have all yet to get going.

It's been even harder with Mitchell.

Mitchell broke wide open for two potential touchdowns passes in the season opener against the Texans, but Richardson sailed the ball over his head.

In their first road start in Green Bay, Mitchell dropped a third-down pass and was penalized for lining up incorrectly, wiping off an explosive run by Taylor.

These are the growing pains that can happen in young passing games. At 22 years old, Mitchell and Richardson are two of the youngest players on the Colts roster -- a rookie wide receiver three games into his career and the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL.

After a 1-2 start, the Colts offense needs to find ways to stay on the field. That can happen by running the ball more and by utilizing the short-area separation of Downs, who broke out last season with 68 catches for 771 yards and two touchdowns.

Wayne likes to remind his room and everyone else that he didn't break out until his third season in the NFL. Pittman and Pierce were both second-round draft picks who had slow rookie seasons, both falling below 600 yards.

This shift takes Mitchell back to his freshman year at Georgia in 2021, when George Pickens got hurt and suddenly a four-star recruit was thrust onto the field for a top-five team with national championship aspirations.

He'll think about those moments of growth when he faces Pickens and the Steelers on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

"I always say, I wish I could have had that time to learn and grow and use that year to grow rather than be forced into it," Mitchell said. "That year, I made a lot of mistakes on the game field. Usually, you get to sit behind older guys and learn from them -- see what they did well, see what they didn't do well and why they messed up. You make those errors in practice. But a lot of the errors I made were on the field.

"I just have to learn from the guys and keep building."

The Colts remain high on Mitchell's potential, which earned him a 9.99 out of 10.00 on the Relative Athletic Score, which compares NFL Scouting Combine prospects since 1987. They saw him turn in huge catches for Georgia and Texas in the College Football Playoff, and they see how open he's gotten open against the Texans and Bears.

If the Colts have another wide receiver injury, the door will open now that he can play outside and in the slot.

For now, he has to make his few plays count. And for a team leading the NFL with 16.2 yards per completion, those chances are going to occasionally come when he can get as open as he has so far.

"He's a threat we have that we haven't really been able to lock in yet," Wayne said.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Adonai Mitchell's role is changing in the Colts receiver room